COLLEGE STATION, Texas. March 22. THE heavily-favored University of Texas Longhorns took a 15-point lead over a gutsy Stanford team, 185-170, after Day One of the Men's NCAA Division I Swimming and Diving Chamionships, being held at Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas.

Surprisingly, it was the Texas divers who supplied the margin for their lead, as they scored 34 points to none for the Cardinal.

Tennessee, which beat Texas by one point in a dual meet earlier this season, was third with 114.5 points, followed by USC (85), Auburn (83) and Cal (80).

Two American, NCAA and US Open records fell this first night, with University of Texas swimmers accounting for all the record-smashing. In the 200 IM, Nate Dusing finally fulfilled the promise he showed when he was selected four years ago as SWIMMING WORLD's male High School Swimmer of the Year. The Texas senior obliterated the 200 IM mark with a time of 1:42.85 (yes, you read that right). The old record, set by Florida's Greg Burgess in 1993, was 1:43.52. In the evening's final event, the Longhorns' 400 yard medley relay punched in at 3:05.37, hacking almost two full seconds off the old standard (3:07.28) set by Stanford six years ago.

Here's how the first six events played out:

200 YARD FREESTYLE RELAY
Stanford, the top qualifier, won the sprint freestyle relay in 1:16.83, just missing the American record by 7-hundreths of a second. Tennessee (1:17.56) and Texas A&M (1:7.63) followed.

Randall Bal got the Cardinal rolling with a 19.65, second-fastest leadoff split behind Roland Schoeman of Arizona, who clocked 19.30. In a preview of things to come, Anthony Robinson followed with the evening's fastest split,18.78, Jeff Guyman clocked 19.36 and Bobby O'Bryant anchored in 19.04.

Keller negative-split his race, swimming the final 100 in 49.88–the only man under 50 seconds for the last 100–to Thompson's 50.07.

USC picked up 38 points with its first, third and 15th place finishes; Michigan garnered 43 on the strength of second, fifth and seventh place finishes.

200 YARD INDIVIDUAL MEDLEY
Oh, Lordy, one Nathan Dusing, senior Texas Longhorn, wanted this one. And make no mistake, he da Man. Dusing destroyed Greg Burgess's eight year-old standard, going right at it from the start. The Kentucky native split 21.87 for the fly, 25.56 for the back, 30.78 for the breast (hey, it's his weak stroke!) and 24.64 for the free to clock an amazing 1:42.85. He was never challenged.

Teammate Tommy Hannan was second in a superb 1:43.87, just off the old record, but he wasn't even close.

Texas picked up 51 points to take the team lead with 102; Stanford notched 40 to total 90.

50 YARD FREESTYLE
You know what they say: You can take the boy out of Texas, but you can't take Texas out of the boy. And back in his old stompin' grounds, one good ol' Texas boy pulled off a stunning upset: beating Olympic gold medalist Anthony Ervin in his signature event. Trouble is, the good ol' Texas boy, Anthony Robinson, was swimming for Stanford.

Four years ago, Robinson became the first (and only) high school swimmer to break 20 seconds for the 50 free. He went on to Stanford, where he was the first of Chelsea Clinton's swimmer-boyfriends and showed occasional flashes of brilliance in the water–usually in the 100 breast–but never lived up to his billing.

That's all changed now. Robinson, who qualified fourth in 19.45, streaked to a 19.15 clocking, just off the NCAA and American records, to upset Cal's Ervin, at 19.23. Ervin managed, again, to out-touch his South African rival, Roland Schoeman of Arizona (19.29), while Stanford's walk-on sensation, freshman Bobby O'Bryan, was fourth.

Stanford, with a first, fourth and fifth, picked up 49 points to 9 for Texas, to forge into the lead in the team race, 140-111.

ONE-METER DIVING
Olympian Troy Dumais, a Texas junior, took the one-meter springboard diving by 25 points over Jud Campbell of Georgia. Troy's older brother, Justin,
picked up a fifth in a very close battle among the second through sixth-place finishers.

Scoring 34 points to zilch for the Cardinal, Texas took over the lead, 155-140.

400 YARD MEDLEY RELAY
If Nate Dusing made an individual statement, Texas made a TEAM statement in blowing away a stellar field to set an American, NCAA, US Open, Solar System and Milky Way record in the 400 yard medley relay.

The team of Nate Dusing (45.94 backstroke), Brendan Hansen (51.48 breaststroke), Tommy Hannan (46.02 fly) and Ian Crocker (41.93 free) was light-seconds ahead of any other this side of Alpha Centauri, clocking 3:05.37.

Auburn was a brilliant second in 3:07.17, also under the old mark, which had stood for six years. Tennessee, which recorded a 3:07.54 for third, just missed breaking the old standard.

Hansen's 51.48 was the swiftest breaststroke split, but Auburn's Dave Denniston (51.78) and Tenn's Jeremy McDonnell (52.05) were right behind. Stanford's Robinson scored with a 52.86.

Hannan's 46.02 was the fastest 100 fly, but the next three teams all had 46+ flyers: Auburn's Andre Haidinyak (46.27),Tennessee's Justin Hoggatt (46.75), and Sanford's Bobby O'Bryan (46.65).

Cal's Anthony Ervin, making amends for his upset loss in the 50, brought the Golden Bears home in 41.63, the day's fastest split and three-tenths faster than Crocker. Auburn's Greg Busse was next with a 42.03,
followed by the 42.84 Adam Messner swam for Stanford.